January 30, 2011

Finished!

We did the math. There are 1,225 little squares in this quilt top. I think I would be completely crazy by now if I had cut them all out individually and pieced this together one square at at time. Hooray for strip piecing! I'm really happy with how this turned out, and really pleased that start-to-finish (or at least this stage of finish - there's still a possible border and a backing and binding to add, not to mention the actual quilting part) was just a month.

The PS I Quilt Quilt Along part was probably crucial for making sure I got this far this quickly. And I enjoyed how there were all these other people working on similar projects, even if I didn't spent a whole lot of time in the Flickr pool. (Someone posted a picture of a block in progress, and their computer was right next to their sewing machine - with the Flickr page on the screen!) There are some wonderful quilt tops posted in the Flickr pool, some of which may inspire me to do the postage stamp thing again. My quilt came out random, but there are some fun ideas for organized versions or differently random versions. Some of my favorites are here (dark solid and light print), here (organized), here (an on-point setting, and a double border!), here (more random than most), here (black and whites!), and here (orderly!). So many other possibilities to try!

I've also thought it might be interesting to make one with slightly larger squares (3 or 4 inches) and then use the result as the fabric for a skirt...